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International cooperation on groundwater takes many forms. The mobilization of different actors helps to promote cooperation initiatives in South America, where the most well known case is the Guarani Aquifer System (GAS). This article intends to analyze how international actors have motivated cooperation on transboundary aquifers and its repercussions in South America, especially in the case of the GAS.

A sociedade contemporânea cria riscos de todas ordens, alterando o significado dessa palavra. Ela pode estar associada a ameaças naturais, mas cada vez mais esta relacionada a açıes humanas, em especial devido ao uso de tecnologias. O uso do solo, tanto para fins agrícolas quanto urbano, gera possibilidades de contaminação de áreas sensíveis, como é o caso da área de recarga do aquífero Guarani, em Ribeirão Preto, no Estado de São Paulo, no Brasil, um dos mais importantes municípios do estado que, além de elevado desenvolvimento econômico, destaca-se por situar-se junto a área de recarga do principal reservatório de água subterrânea do Cone Sul. Este trabalho visa discutir a gestão do uso das águas subterrâneas em Ribeirão Preto e refletir sobre os riscos que a contaminação e a superexploração acarretam para a principal fonte hídrica do município.

The water crisis tends to intensify the use of groundwater, which supplies almost half of Brazilian population. Despite that, its management is precarious. The article analyses the role of groundwater and its management in the current context of water crisis and forward the need to ensure the human right to water. The methodology used is the documentary analysis of literature, legislation, international documents and governmental reports. The fragilities over management and the private appropriation of groundwater threaten water security. The water crises focus in the idea of scarcity stimulates the quest for new sources but does not face the structural flaws of the management models. So the use of aquifers reflects the same problems that have allowed the degradation of surface waters, which is aggravated by the hidden character and the irregular exploration.

Groundwater resources supply millions of people worldwide and constitute the main water reserve available for mankind, but its management is precarious. The eminence of a water crisis redirected the spotlights to transboundary aquifers, which made evident their vulnerability to the risks and the need to insert them in the national and international water policies. Gradually, the international system seeks ways of including these resources and promoting their governance and management. This was the case of the Guarani Aquifer, the target of several cooperation projects that led to the only agreement for the joint management of a transboundary aquifer in America. The aim of this study is to analyze how international law and the environmental order treated the groundwaters and transboundary aquifers and what are their strategies to avoid the risks that threaten these resources, focused on the case of the Guarani Aquifer. The methodology used is the qualitative analysis of international documents and the bibliography on the theme. International water law, directed almost exclusively to surface water resources, makes efforts to include the aquifers, which is reflected in several attempts from the legal epistemic community and the edition of UN Resolution 63/124-the international law of transboundary aquifers. Parallel to this, the international system, represented by a specific group of international organizations, aims at drafting objective and universal guidelines for these resources, having elected the integrated water resources management and good water governance as the best way to protect them. These concepts are an invitation to dive deeper into the cooperation and constitution of joint legal landmarks, which can contribute, at least, to formatting some type of use and protection policy. Nevertheless, they do not question the core problem, which is the dominating economic rationale. The international cooperation established between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay for the Guarani Aquifer and the signature of the respective agreement are the result of this international context that has promoted the groundwater theme. The cooperation model adopted for the Guarani will replicate the international environmental order and international water law and expose their advances, limitations and contradictions.

The La Plata River Basin's transboundary institutional arrangement is a complex system with different geographical bases and scopes, including 14 international organizations, four technical committees and one groundwater commission (not yet implemented). This article examines this institutional architecture by outlining the characteristics of cooperative arrangements established under treaties as a way of analyzing how the process of water governance takes place between riparian states. The large number of institutions contrasts with the modest number of joint actions and projects, which prompts questions about their role in the governance process, especially considering the lack of transparency and information about their performance. ARTICLE HISTORY

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in the recharge zones is appreciable, but inconsistent laws create obstacles that interrupt a real application of this instrument. In the municipally level, the priority is the interest of powerful economy sectors instead of the recharge areas protection. The implementation and application of an efficient subterranean water policy is prejudiced by risks' diversity, lack of a national policy that indicates directives to the state policy, and lack of integration and articulation among various involved sectors and actors. Recharge areas protection have been realized as an indirect way through environmental instruments. These instruments are not specific, but they reach the recharge areas as a natural consequence of the environmental protection.